The mobility of amorphous silicon used in a-SiTFT liquid crystal panels (i.e., liquid crystal panels in which thin-film transistors have semiconductor layers made from amorphous silicon) is low. Accordingly, in conventional liquid crystal display devices, a gate driver for driving gate bus lines is mounted around the liquid crystal panel as a semiconductor chip or a semiconductor device. However, in recent years, gate-in-panels, which are liquid crystal panels on which gate drivers are formed from amorphous silicon, have been actively developed in order to achieve compact liquid crystal display devices at reduced production cost. The gate-in-panel is also referred to as a panel with a monolithic gate driver, a panel without a gate driver, or a gate driver built in a panel.
Moreover, liquid crystal display devices to be mounted in compact and lightweight electronic devices are required to consume less power. One drive method for reducing power consumption in the liquid crystal display device is a drive method called “pause drive”, which alternates between a drive period, in which gate bus lines are scanned for signal voltage writing, and a pause period, in which the writing is paused by leaving all of the gate bus lines unscanned. The pause drive achieves low power consumption in the liquid crystal display device by pausing the operation of a gate driver and/or a source driver during the pause period. Accordingly, by performing pause drive on a gate-in-panel liquid crystal display device, it is rendered possible to produce a compact and low power liquid crystal display device at low production cost.
In relevance to the present invention, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2004-78124 and 2008-9367 are known. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-78124 discloses a liquid crystal display device in which pause drive is performed. Moreover, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2008-9367 describes a gate-in-panel liquid crystal display device in which a gate driver is formed on a liquid crystal panel.